Greeting

¹Paul, aan apostle of Christ Jesus bby the will of God, and Timothy cour brother,

²To the dsaints and faithful brothers1 in Christ at Colossae:

eGrace to you and peace from God our Father.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³fWe always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴since we heard of gyour faith in Christ Jesus and of gthe love that you have for all the saints, ⁵because of hthe hope ilaid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in jthe word of the truth, the gospel, ⁶which has come to you, as indeed kin the whole world it is lbearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you mheard it and understood nthe grace of God in truth, ⁷just as you learned it from oEpaphras our beloved pfellow servant.2 He is pa faithful minister of Christ on your3 behalf ⁸and has made known to us your qlove in the Spirit.

⁹And so, rfrom the day we heard, swe have not ceased to pray for you, asking that tyou may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all uspiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so as vto walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, wfully pleasing to him: xbearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹ybeing strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for zall endurance and patience awith joy; ¹²bgiving thanks4 to the Father, who has qualified you5 to share in cthe inheritance of the saints in light. ¹³He dhas delivered us from ethe domain of darkness and transferred us to fthe kingdom of ghis beloved Son, ¹⁴hin whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The Preeminence of Christ

¹⁵iHe is the image of jthe invisible God, kthe firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by6 him all things were created, lin heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether mthrones or ndominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created othrough him and for him. ¹⁷And phe is before all things, and in him all things qhold together. ¹⁸And rhe is the head of the body, the church. He is sthe beginning, tthe firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹For uin him all the vfullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and wthrough him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, xmaking peace yby the blood of his cross.

²¹zAnd you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, adoing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled bin his body of flesh by his death, cin order to present you holy and blameless and dabove reproach before him, ²³eif indeed you continue in the faith, fstable and steadfast, not shifting from gthe hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed hin all creation7 under heaven, iand of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Paul's Ministry to the Church

²⁴Now jI rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh kI am filling up lwhat is lacking in Christ's afflictions mfor the sake of his body, that is, the church, ²⁵nof which I became a minister according to othe stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶pthe mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. ²⁷qTo them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are rthe riches of the glory of pthis mystery, which is Christ in you, sthe hope of glory. ²⁸Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that twe may present everyone umature in Christ. ²⁹For this vI toil, wstruggling xwith all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

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¹For I want you to know yhow great a wstruggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, ²that ztheir hearts may be encouraged, being aknit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of bGod's mystery, which is Christ, ³cin whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. ⁴I say this in order dthat no one may delude you with plausible arguments. ⁵For ethough I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your fgood order and gthe firmness of your faith in Christ.

Alive in Christ

⁶hTherefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, ⁷irooted and jbuilt up in him and kestablished in the faith, just las you were taught, abounding min thanksgiving.

⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by nphilosophy and oempty deceit, according to phuman tradition, according to the qelemental spirits1 of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹For rin him the whole fullness of deity dwells sbodily, ¹⁰and tyou have been filled in him, who is uthe head of all rule and authority. ¹¹In him also vyou were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by wputting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹²xhaving been buried with him in baptism, in which yyou were also raised with him through faith in zthe powerful working of God, zwho raised him from the dead. ¹³aAnd you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God bmade alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴by ccanceling dthe record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵wHe disarmed the rulers and authorities2 and eput them to open shame, by ftriumphing over them in him.3

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